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'AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 



THE , QTJE5J&e-:3:nT AND THE AMEEIOAN 
^-"^""^ EEYOLUTIOK 



VI 



YICTOE COFFIN. 

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(From the Aonnal Beport of the American Historical Association for 1894, pages 273-279.) 



WASHINGTON" :• 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
1896. 



XVI.-THE QUEBEC ACT AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



By Victor Coffin. 



The conclusious of the present paper are drawn from a soine- 
wliat exteuded investigation into the introdnction of English 
rule into French Canada, 1760-1774 ^ They seem to be appro- 
priate for use on this occasion because of the belief induced 
by that investigation that the place held by Canada in the 
early Eevolutiouary history is in our day much underrated, and 
has at all times been much misunderstood. One of the earliest 
exi^ressions of the misconception I speak of is found in the 
Declaration of Independence; the latest that I have met is put 
forward with much emphasis by the reviewer of Professor 
Eggleston's Life of John Patterson, in the New York Nation 
of July 11 last. The reviewer asserts that from its conquest 
in 1760 Canada was regarded by the British ministry as a point 
d'ai^pui "for the support of the ministerial policy in asserting 
British parliamentary supremacy over the colonies;" and that 
this position was expressed and intensified by the Quebec act 
of 1774, "which had for its object, as the Continental Con- 
gress charged, to substitute the institutes of French customary 
law for the common law of England, and thereby to make 
Canadians proper instruments for assisting in the oppression 
of such as differ from them in modes of government and faith." 
The first part of this statement my limited time compels me to 
leave witli the remark that an examination of the pamphlet 
and other party literature, and of the di^^lomatic and parlia- 
mentary proceedings during the last years of the war and at 
the j^eace of 1763, will show it to be thoroughly mistaken. As 

'The result of this iuvestigatiou will be found at length iu the Bulletin 

of the University of Wisconsin, History and Political Science Series (1895), 

under title, The Province of Quebec, 1763-1775. A more extended form of 

the present paper, with I'efereuces, was published in the Yale Review for 

August, 1895. 

273 

H. Mis. 91 18 



274 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 

to the latter part, the reviewer simply restates the accepted 
tradition; namely, that the character of the relations between 
the colonies and the mother country led in 1774 to the joining 
with the acts for the punishment of the Province of Massachu- 
setts Bay, an act (the Quebec act) designed to continue to the 
Canadians the despotic system of government under which 
they had grown up, and thus to pave the way for using them 
as docile instruments in the extinguishing of the liberties of 
the other colonies. In this view this act is denounced in the 
Declaration of Independence as "abolishing the free system 
of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein 
an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to 
render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing 
the same absolute rule in these colonies." 

In giving the reasons for my entire dissent from these em- 
phatic opinions I must speak in the briefest manner, and only 
of the most prominent points. We have these three features 
of the Quebec act to consider: (1) The substitution of French 
for English law; (2) the withholding of the representative 
institutions which existed in the other provinces; (3) the great 
territorial extension of the province. And in expressing my 
belief that these provisions were not due to, or intended to 
affect, the condition of affairs in the other provinces, I must not 
be understood as denying the arbitrary and tyrannical spirit 
of the administration by which they were enacted, nor the fact 
that that administration was at the moment largely inspired 
by hostility to the free spirit of American self-government. Its 
animus is sufficiently seen in the other American acts of the 
same session; my object is simply to show that, in spite of 
appearances, it was not guilty of the more far-reaching and 
treacherous attack on liberty imputed to it on account of the 
Canadian measure. The Quebec act was founded on miscon- 
ception and false information, and is one of the most disastrous 
measures in English colonial history; but a close examination 
of its genesis has convinced me that it was the result of an 
earnest and comparatively generous effort for the welfare of 
the French Canadians, and that it was not to any appreciable 
degree affected by tyrannical ideas in regard either to them or 
to the rest of America. 

And first, as to the change in civil laws. It will be remem- 
bered that in October, 1703, a royal proclamation was issued for 
the purpose ot establishing civil government in the newly 



QUEBEC ACT AND AMERICAN REVOLUTION COFFIN. 275 

acquired Provinces of Quebec, Granada, East and West Florida. 
This proclamation was then, and has been since, understood as 
subverting- in Canada the whole system of French law and 
administration; and in this view Bancroft denounces it as an 
act of extreme tyranny, declaring- that " the history of the world 
furnishes no instance of so rash inj ustice."^ Lord Mansfield, on 
the other hand, in his famous Granada decision of 1774 refers to 
the proclamation as an irrevocable charter of liberties granted 
to all who did then or might hereafter reside in the regions in 
question; on the ground that the King had thereby divested 
himself of his direct legislative authority, and given solemn 
promises of the establishment of English law and representa- 
tive institutions. It is clear that if the Quebec act, which 
undid the work of the proclamation in Canada, showed on this 
point the designs attributed to it, these designs could not have 
animated the royal breast in 1703. The promises of the procla- 
mation were, however, not fulfilled in Canada inregard to repre- 
sentative institutions, and government remained on this inse- 
cure basis until 1774. During this whole period the official 
correspondence and reports are largely occupied with repre- 
sentations as to the disastrous state of things that exists in 
consequence of this delay and uncertainty, and with urgent 
adjurations to hasten the settling- of the constitution. It was 
found impossible to put English civil law into practice except 
in commercial matters; and as a matter of fact there can be 
little doubt that the great body of the French customary law 
continued undisturbed. Consequently the Quebec act did not 
" substitute" this law for the " abolished" English; it merely 
removed all doubt as to which should be the basis of the per- 
manent code. And that doubt was removed, as far as those in 
authority were concerned, long before the year 1774; for an 
examination of the ofQcial correspondence shows that the 
return to the French law was largely resolved on as early as 
1707. Down to 1700 the colonial officials were evidently under 
the impression that the home government aimed to fulfill the 
promises of the |)roclamation by thoroughly assimilating the 
province to the English form of the other colonies. But in 
that year Murray was superseded by Carleton as governor; 
and the latter came to his duties believing, if not officially 

^ And yet in the measures taken fourteen years later to redress this sup- 
posed injustice he and others can see nothing hut a reaching after "un- 
mixed arhitrary rule." 



276 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 

instructed, that the ministry was inclined to restore the French 
civil law. Murray had already strongly urged this course, and 
from the very first Carleton does not cease to impress upon the 
home Government its justice and desirabihty. We find among 
the state papers of this year (1706) a report of the Crown law^ 
yers, which speaks of the disorder occasioned in the Province 
of Quebec in consequence of the idea that it was intended 
" to abolish all the usages and customs of Canada," and urges 
that it "would be oppressive" hastilj^ to disturb the "local 
usages and customs" in regard to real i^roperty. In June, 1767, 
we find Shelburne, the secretary of state, writing to Governor 
Carleton that the affairs of the in'ovince are under serious con- 
sideration, the main problem being " how far it is practicable 
and convenient to blend the English and the French laws;" 
and in August of the same year the privy council, resolving, on 
consideration of reports from the board of trade, that fuller 
information was desirable (" it being unwise and dangerous to 
frame or reform laws in the dark"), orders a thorough j)re- 
liminary investigation. In December, Carleton sends home a 
draft of a proposed ordinance for continuing the French laws 
in regard to land property; and Hillsborough, who had suc- 
ceeded Shelburue as secretarj^, replies, March, 1708, that it is 
approved of, but that for the present it is to be held in reserve 
pending a general settlement. We thus see that at least six 
years before the Quebec act the home Government, appar- 
ently uninfluenced by anything except representations as to 
the state of the province, had resolved to go almost as far as 
that act went in regard to the system of laws. The investiga- 
tion ordered was at once entered upon, and the information col- 
lected was put into the hands of the Crown lawyers (Thuxlow, 
Wedderbourue, and Marriot), with orders to make exhaust- 
ive reports and recommendations. These were delayed from 
various causes, and it was not until 1771 that this much delib- 
erated matter was ready to be legislated upon. The Quebec 
act was unquestionably founded upon these able reports of the 
Crown lawyers ; and we can not read them without being con- 
vinced that they were almost entirely inspired by a sincere and 
generous, if somewhat mistaken, concern for the best interests 
of the province. 

- Next, let us consider the withholding of representative insti- 
tutions. It was on this ground, I think, that was mainly 
based the opinion (not unreasonable, considering contemporary 



QUEBEC ACT AND AMERICAN REVOLUTION — COFFIN. 277 

events), prevailing tliroiigliout tbe old colonies that the con- 
stitution given to the Province of Quebec was the herald of a 
direct attack on old-established liberties. And 1 admit that 
on first view there would seem to be little question, apart from 
direct evidence, that the state of feeling in England in regard 
to American assemblies did influence the ministerial mind in 
this matter. It surely was to be expected. But even if there 
were an unwillingness to establish another such assembly until 
the difficulties with the existing ones had been somewhat ap- 
peased, we can scarcely regard such caution as indicative of a 
deep-laid and systematic attack on the institution. The facts 
show that there could have been no such intention. The first 
reference to the matter is on September 2, 1765, when we find 
the board of trade reporting to the privy council that the 
"situation and circumstances of the colony (Canada) have not 
hitherto been thought to admit of a house of assembly," but 
that the only obstacle they can find is the difficulty in regard 
to admitting Catholics as members. IsTo further mention is 
made of this, and the next imi>ortant offlcial document is the 
report of Canadian affairs by Solicitor-General Wedderbourne, 
December, 1772, which sets forth very clearly the main reasons 
for withholding an assembly. He contends that it is at pres- 
ent wholly inexpedient to form one in Canada on account of 
the peculiar difficulties presented by the religion of the great 
mass of the inhabitants. These difficulties he points out very 
forcibly, and advises instead of an assembly the form of gov- 
ernment by a large appointed council that was actually estab- 
lished by the Quebec act. For the public attitude of the min- 
istry in this matter we may go to the debate in the Commons 
on the Quebec act itself. The main impression which a study 
of this spirited and protracted discussion leaves with us as to 
tlie point is that the opposition were very careful not to press 
for an immediate assembly, and that the ministry Avere very 
careful to defend their withholding it purely on the grounds : 
(1) That it would be unjust to exclude the French Eoman 
Catholic majority, and (2) that it would be unsafe to admit it. 
Attorney- General Thurlow asserted without contradiction that 
no one had claimed that it was at i)resent fit to give an assem. 
bly to Canada; and Fox admitted that he would not explicitly 
state that such a step was then expedient. Lord Beauchamp, 
a Government supporter, affirmed tbat no member had advo- 
cated the appointment of a council because of the conduct of 



278 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 

the popular assemblies in America, or had ventured to say that 
au assembly would be always advisable. It is evident on the 
whole that the opposition could not offer a solution of the diffi- 
culties that lay in the way, and that the Government, what- 
ever secret motives may have influenced it, was quite able to 
defend its position by pointing- to these difficulties. It would 
be more correct to say, however, that the Quebec act deferred 
than that it denied an assembly, for the words are '' whereas 
it is at present inexpedient." There was not at any time any 
serious consideration of the permanent refusal to the Canadi- 
ans of representative institutions; and the last word on the 
subject in the Quebec act debate was the following from Lord 
North: 

That it is desirable to give the Canadians a constitution in every resiject 
like the constitution of Great Britain, I will not saj'; but I earnestly hope 
that they will, iu the course of time, enjoy as much of our laws and as 
much of our constitution as may be beneficial to that country and safe 
for this. But that time has not yet come. 

The ministry in short were encouraged to delay representa- 
tive institutions because they were assured by the colonial 
officials that the great body of the French Canadian jjeople 
had no desire for them, and could safely, and perhaps benefi- 
cially, be left without them for a few years to come ; but there 
is no evidence to show that this delay was intended as the first 
step of a system of oppression which was ultimately to be ex- 
tended to the other colonies through the instrumentality of 
the docile slaves that had been secured in Canada. 

Lastly, as to the subject of the territorial extension of the 
province. This I had hoped to take up more thoroughly : but 
I must be content with pointing out the line of argument. The 
Province of Quebec was confined iu 1704 (against the remon- 
strances of its inhabitants), and extended in 1774, not through 
invidious designs against the other colonies, but mainly, if 
not entirely, from consideration connected solely with the 
Indians and the fur trade. The importance of this trade in 
British eyes at the time need not be dwelt upon, and it will 
be readily seen that the general relations with the savages 
depended upon it and upon the treatment of the Indian terri- 
tories. It can be clearly established that the steadily increas- 
ing anarchical character of the conditions in these regions had 
by 1774 convinced the authorities that they should be annexed 
to some one civil government; and having reached this con- 
clusion it was inevitable that there should be chosen for this 



QUEBEC ACT AND AMERICAN KEVOLUTION COFFIN. 279 

purpose the province to which the region, or the most of it, 
was believed to have belonged, from which it could be gov- 
erned most easily and which was most directly under imperial 
control. 

From the above examination we must at least conclude that 
if the Quebec act was dictated by hostility to the growth and 
liberty of the other colonies, its authors took unusual pains to 
keep its real purpose hidden. But why should such conceal- 
ment have been thought necessary? This same government 
had just carried through three bills of the most stringent and 
repressive nature, striking, to the popular view, heavier blows 
at American freedom and growth than anything contained 
in the Quebec act; and in these measures it had found itself 
backed by a consistent and overwhelming support, both in Par- 
liament and in the country. Why should it now have scrupled 
to say that it was also taking measures of precaution in Can- 
ada? The government of that day was not an enlightened 
one, and would have been well content to secure popular sup- 
port without looking to the future; and it might well luive 
concluded that the x>reserving of the fur trade and the vast 
regions of the West from the encroachments of the rebellious 
colonies would have proved a popular measure. Eather than 
concealed, indeed, we should expect to see this feature, if occu- 
pying a prominent position in the ministerial mind, put forward 
with prominence. We should expect it to have been used to 
explain and defend before a bigoted public that apparent estab- 
lishment of the popish worship which so aroused the horror 
of the Continental Congress, and which was as unpopular in 
England as in America. 1 have spoken above of the act as 
one of the most disastrous in English colonial history. It was 
not popular in England ; it was detested in America ; it was not 
called for or welcomed by the Canadians; it was as useless at 
the time as it has since proved injurious. And if I had not 
already exceeded my time I should like to give reasons for 
believing that the religious provisions of the act had very 
little real influence in Canada, and that the ill-timed intoler- 
ance of the Continental Congress had comparatively little to 
do with the ill success of the invasions of 1775-7G. Canada 
was preserved to Great Britain not through the Quebec act, 
but in spite of it. The controlling forces at this critical point 
in the history of North America were the mismanagement of 
the Revolutionary cause and the vigor and ability of the 
British leaders. 



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